


The Path to the Future

by Lepidopteran (inarticulate)



Series: Rúnyo [3]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 08:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2263593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inarticulate/pseuds/Lepidopteran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyelkormo is reborn in an unexpected way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Path to the Future

It had not yet been a year since his own awakening that Maitimo learned of Tyelkormo's reembodiment. The news came as a shock to him, for of his two remaining brothers, Curufinwë had seemed the wearier. But it was Tyelkormo of whom Eärwen brought news, for he had been born to a Teleri couple some ten years back, and they had kept the news to themselves for that long, still in fear of the Kinslaying repeating itself.

"It is difficult," Makalaurë said. He had followed Maitimo outside after the news came. "Even for me, who could see you before your memories awakened, who could watch you grow as I had not before. But our mother and brothers and Findekáno knew of your presence long before your memories returned and could not see you. It would have caused too much confusion, and you would have been too young to carry the sorrow they would have passed along."

"I did not speak to Tyelkormo," Maitimo admitted. "I spoke not to my brother or grandfather in the Halls of Mandos that second time, before I was reembodied. I might have, had I been given enough time."

"The years pass differently for the dead." Makalaurë sighed and leaned back against a tree. "You shall see him when his memories return."

Maitimo bowed his head. "Perhaps we shall even bridge the gap between our people and the Teleri in this way."

"I doubt he will do more than Anairë and Eärwen have."

Tyelkormo remembered himself early; he was only in his forty-seventh year when he awoke, twelve years after Curufinwë was also reembodied, but, then, he had always matured swiftly in body. He came to Maitimo first, of all his kin. This, Maitimo suspected, was not out of any loyalty to his older brother, but rather because Maitimo dwelt at that moment in the house of Nolofinwë. "Brother," Tyelkormo said, standing there with silver hair flowing freely down his back and lanky shoulders squared, and it was as though a floodgate of memory had opened anew.

Maitimo stepped forward to embrace him rather than returning that short greeting. "I forgive you everything," he said before Tyelkormo could speak another word, "and I hope that you will one day do the same for me."

When he pulled back, Tyelkormo gave him a look that conveyed how very unimpressed he was. "Of course you would leap immediately to such a topic," he said, his voice dry. "But I recall nothing I need forgive you for." He looked pleased, however, despite his words; he wore that particular expression he had lost once a lifetime before, an expression that spoke of delight and secret happiness that he attempted to mask with disdain and boredom.

"You have enjoyed your second childhood."

Tyelkormo snorted. "As it happens, I have the knack for shipbuilding," he said. "I find I like it less than hunting, but it is not entirely useless. Anairë tells me that her family still hunts; I would hunt with them."

And with that, enlightenment broke through. Maitimo laughed. "You are here to see Irissë, not me!" He grinned and moved back to allow Tyelkormo further in. "Will you not even congratulate me on my marriage, brother?" Tyelkormo's scowl might have silenced Maitimo once, in another Age— not out of fear, but out of despair. But here, as scar tissue had finally begun to form over old memories, Maitimo simply grinned the way he had in Tyelkormo's first childhood.

"I will not congratulate you on anything, for if you wished my congratulations, you would have waited."

"I would not have waited any longer for anyone," Maitimo said. "We had waited long enough." He shook his head. "Irissë is indeed here if you wish to speak to her, and I will show you to her for the small promise that you will say nothing terrible to my husband."

The sun could not have blazed more fiercely than Tyelkormo's grin at that point. "I cannot promise that."

Maitimo rolled his eyes before turning to lead his brother to Irissë anyway. "I am glad they have treated you well," he said. He found it easier to speak of serious topics into the silence of the hall ahead when not facing his brother.

"My new parents are kind." Tyelkormo's voice grew quieter. "I would not have suspected until I awoke that day and knew it to be true. I do not know if they died then, or who they had lost. I know only that I caused them to suffer, and they gave me only love in return."

"Perhaps you should ask one day," Maitimo suggested, but he did not press the matter when Tyelkormo remained silent. He stopped in the hallway and turned once more. "Tyelkormo—"

And that was all it took to bring Irissë forth from her room, her eyes wide and smile upon her face as she strode forward to clasp Tyelkormo's hands. "You are tiny, cousin," she said with approval. "I shall outshoot you even more easily than usual."

Tyelkormo could not even summon proper anger to his face, and Maitimo's heart was gladdened. "Think you I have not been practicing all these years of second childhood?"

"You forget," Irissë said with a twinkle in her eye, "Anairë is my mother. I have ears and eyes wherever she goes, and I have asked her many questions. I know you have not held a bow at all this past half-century, for your new parents would not let you. Have you come here to remedy that?"

It was as though Maitimo had become invisible to the both of them, and he turned his head to hide a smile. He left the two of them there, in friendship rediscovered; he would have plenty of time to talk to his brother later, when he took Tyelkormo to Nerdanel's halls.


End file.
